White Pass & Yukon

White Pass & Yukon.

The White Pass & Yukon Railroad is one of the more difficult railroads to ride in North America.  It’s isolated.  It’s arguably in the middle of nowhere.  It’s seasonal.  And it’s worth it if you can get there!

I’m not going to try to retell the story of the White Pass here.  You can do a search if you’re so inclined or just look at the pictures!

White Pass & Yukon GE #100, Skagway AK.
White Pass & Yukon GE #100, Skagway AK.

If you’re a mileage collector, it’s worth riding.  If you’re a fan of unique locomotives, it’s worth going.  If you’re just into scenery, it’s worth looking out the window.  If you like it when the weather changes 20 miles away, it’s for you as well.

I was going to say if you wanted to know what it was like to take the train from the coast of Alaska inland to work in the mines of the Yukon Territory, it’s for you as well.  And then I realized I’d be lying.  The passenger cars of those days weren’t so well sealed from the elements, and likely weren’t as comfortable either.  Heating would have likely been from a coal stove, and those stoves had a nasty tendency of turning wood-bodied passenger cars into bonfires on wheels.  Springs in the trucks would have been there to the point necessary to stabilize the car and not for the comfort of the travelers.

Toilets… Well, let’s just say that they lacked tanks and practiced a form of “direct deposit”!  (Before you say “ewww, gross…” about that – retention tanks have only come into mandate in the last 25 years or so.  Strange but true.)

That said…

Take a look at a ride on the White Pass by clicking here to check out the White Pass & Yukon Gallery on Laughing Frog Images.

Thanks for looking!